said something that utterly stupid. I know a lot of people said utterly stupid things of a slightly different nature when discussing the riots. I'd wager that people said something quite different and you've misjudged them.

Are you sure you weren't confusing people pointing out that most people rioting were being put under extreme pressure by society and thus it could be argued that what happened was understandable, and then deciding that was the same thing as saying it was acceptable?

and i've read up a lot on the holocaust and other genocides recently. i'm by no means an expert on either, but i don't think an hour long documentary will change my mind dramatically. i'm naturally very dubious of the neutrality of documentaries anyway.

But for example, the film goes through the reasons that different drugs have been targeted at different times (historically a racial issue), and why politicians/governments have pursued methods that they know don't work (or are at least far less effective than other methods).

If eliminating drug crime was the objective, then they'd be going about it in an almost entirely different way.

A 'catch-all crime' similar to the early criminalisation of homosexuality in ancient greece .... used to target and remove only a very specific section of the 'criminals'- those who are deemed useless, politically problematic etc.

Penalties for drug crimes among American youth almost always involve permanent or semi-permanent removal from opportunities for education, strip them of voting rights, and later involve creation of criminal records which make employment more difficult.[115] Thus, some authors maintain that the War on Drugs has resulted in the creation of a permanent underclass of people who have few educational or job opportunities, often as a result of being punished for drug offenses which in turn have resulted from attempts to earn a living in spite of having no education or job opportunities

is someone saying that American punitive drug sentencing is a deliberate class war type tactic or just that keep certain sections of society down is just an unfortunate side effect of a well intentioned but failing policing policy?

America outsourced most of the jobs these parts of society and it simply doesn't have a place for large swathes of the working classes any more.

By letting them put themselves into the criminal system and by applying incredibly harsh (10 year, 20 year, life sentence) penalties for even fairly minor drug use, it both removes these people from society and creates an entire industry based on creating and running prisons, which then become a driver in the economy.

I just wanted someone to give a half decent explanation why and had to tease to get it out of someone while everyone was crying that its all too complicated and getting het up over one or two words. It's so much easier when someone just tells it straight.

They know it doesn't work. They also know who it targets - the holocaust statement was made because the war on drugs is specifically targeted at a certain section of society, and the aim is not to help or rehabilitate, it's to remove these people.

that as mad and broken as the policies may be if you were to hang out with the lawmakers responsible they would genuinely believe that what they are targetting is a crime and the criminals responsible.

Not persecuting poor people, or black people, or hispanic people, or young men, or any other subset of society beyond the criminal - if it falls more heavily on one of those groups than another, they may say, 'well that community has a crime problem and we're going to root it out'.

Its roots go back over a century with the same ideas being used but with the drugs changing. Its targets have also changed. What's different with the last 30 years is that it's become economically powerful. There has been a lot of propaganda and demonisation.

i got to about the 40 minute mark and i got a phone call, will probably watch the rest tonight. it was obviously very well produced and a great piece of television, but i'll wait until i've watched it in full before giving any opinion of it.